1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention generally relate to across-chip temperature profiling and, more particularly, to a circuit and a method that use distributed phase change memory (PCM) elements for across-chip temperature profiling.
2. Description of the Related Art
Operational performance of integrated circuit devices can be significantly affected by temperature variations, due to temperature-dependent characteristics, such as charge carrier mobility, threshold voltage, resistance, etc. Consequently, the temperature gradient across a semiconductor chip can be profiled to set up the needed stress levels for testing and qualification of system-on-chip (SOC) functional cores (e.g., third party intellectual property (IP) cores, logic cores, memory cores, processor cores, etc.) and further to set operational specifications (e.g., operating voltages) for SOC functional cores.
On-chip temperature sensors are useful tools for profiling temperature gradients. However, as integrated circuits continue to be scaled in size, the use of conventional analog temperature sensors can result in significant area penalties. Additionally, such temperatures sensors often operate at relatively high operating voltages making their integration into current state of the art technologies, with relatively low operating voltages, more difficult. Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improved temperature gradient profiling technique that can be easily integrated into new state of the art technologies.